Toby Johnson

Metrics come up all the time in talking about how to prove design systems value. The prevailing idea is that increasing adoption is the key to unlocking value. I disagree. I think it may be a part of success, but it is a bad way to express value. Here is why! Adoption is the kind of metric you get when you throw up your hands because you can't get the right data or you're more focused on building the design system than what you can build with it. It is the equivalent of "well, people seem to use it, so it must be great!" this can be fine if you're just starting out, but it doesn't tell you how your system is actually delivering value. Heck, NPS (which is also pretty imperfect), or a qualitative ask of product teams of "how valuable is the design system to your daily work?" or "what would change if the design system went away tomorrow?" is a better proxy for value than just "do people view some pages or login once a week?" Adoption can be pushed as a mandate. After seeing hundred of design systems up close, I can say definitively that high adoption doesn't differentiate between dream design systems and that 17 tool spaghetti monster that has documentation in Excel with hundreds of links to a private Git repo along with a 22 swim lane flowchart that you just... keep... scrolling... down. The only reason why adoption persists as a common metric is because even really bad design systems have the ability to generate significant value. So what's better? First, we need to hone in on the unit of repeatable value. This differs depending on the stated goal of the design system, but the vast majority of good design systems that operate at a significant scale are focused on how fast the organization can build products using the system (that's not the same as building components or designs in the system itself). At Knapsack, we tend to express this at this as cycle / iteration time from design to code across product teams that consume the design system -- either faster iterations or fewer iterations. We tend to focus on capacity because individual cycle velocity is often poorly understood and varies between product teams or disciplines. However, most teams have a fair handle on their capacity both for a single cycle and across a historical range of cycles. These can also be expressed easily as a relative percentage increase or decrease. It also accounts for a lot of secondary things (e.g. QA time) There is a goldilocks zone that consistently lands between 20 - 40% greater cycle capacity. For most of our customers, that's literally millions of dollars. If you're using adoption, you're not alone. We've heard time and again on the Design Systems Podcast that folks look at this metric ALL THE TIME as a measure of success, but it certainly doesn't paint the full picture, nor is it the north star for understanding value.

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Product Lifecycle and the Chasm Understanding the Chasm: Recognize the gap between early adopters, who are visionaries eager to try new technologies, and the early majority, who are more pragmatic and wait for proof of benefits. Stages of Product Lifecycle MVP (Minimum Viable Product) Target Segment: Innovators or technology enthusiasts Key Strategies: Focus on personification and prioritization to attract the right audience interested in innovation. Introduction Stage Target Segment: Early adopters seeking improvement Key Strategies: Similar to the MVP stage, with emphasis on targeting the right audience for outreach. Growth Stage Target Segment: Early majority or pragmatists entering the mainstream market Key Strategies: Provide quick wins to show tangible benefits, use data-driven decision-making, and communicate the product's importance effectively. Maturity Stage Target Segment: Late majority or conservatives who wait for established products Key Strategies: Maintain quick wins, data-driven decisions, and clear communication about the product's value. Decline Stage Target Segment: Laggards or skeptics of new technology Key Strategies: Offer continuous support, monitor usage, provide guidance, and establish a product community for instant help. Customer Retention Plan Engaging Resources: Provide quality content that answers customers' questions and educates them. Metrics Tracking: Monitor customer behavior and churn rate using analytics. Effective Communication: Develop proactive strategies for retention, including newsletters. Customer Service: Enhance customer experiences with better service and UX. Building Trust: Use social proof, case studies, and real-life examples in marketing materials. Customer Acquisition and Retention Analytics Bounce Rate: Measure the percentage of visitors who leave the website quickly. Click Through Rate: Track how many customers click and engage with the website content. Customer Churn: Calculate the difference between the number of users at the start and end of a contract. Customer Lifetime Value: Identify revenue per user minus acquisition costs. Active Users: Monitor daily, monthly, quarterly, and annual user activity. Contracts Managed: Count the number of contracts managed by the product. Revenue Generated: Calculate the monetary value generated by the product compared to existing offerings. Data Quality Accuracy: Ensure the accuracy of data management algorithms. A/B Testing Use statistical methods to compare different versions and determine the most effective one, ensuring the differences are statistically significant. Go-to-Market Strategy Competition: Assess the number of competitors and your unfair advantage. Customers: Identify existing and future customers and potential synergies. Company: Evaluate strengths, weaknesses, and skillset matches. Collaborators: Decide whether to enter the market alone or seek partnerships. Climate: Consider political, economic, and regulatory factors.

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A critical mistake many product managers make is getting too wrapped up in the tactical aspects of Agile and feature prioritization. While these are important, neglecting strategic skills like user research and vision development can limit your impact and career growth. Focus on what truly matters to elevate your product and your career.

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Product decisions should be *data-informed*, rather than "data-driven". While metrics are crucial, they should guide, not dictate, your strategy. PMs, questions to ask yourself: How often do you challenge data with your user insights and intuition? Are you fostering an environment in your team where questioning data is encouraged? We need to balance metrics with meaningful user insights to innovate truly.

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I wanted to give a shout-out to David Pereira for his first book Untrapping Product Teams (I was a beta reader). The book is grounded in reality, and full of actionable insights that are based on David own experience. David covers a lot of ground in a concise and compelling manner, using his typical no-nonsense style and real-world examples. If you're a product person, I'm sure you'll find much value in the many insights, frameworks, and tools the book provides. https://a.co/d/01Sn4LFH

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4 sources of data that product marketers shouldn’t overlook. Taken from the recent Product Marketing Alliance blog with Praveen Krishnamurthy. Understanding customers is at the core of what product marketers (PMMs) do. It's foundational to their work in developing a product's positioning and messaging. While PMMs often turn to familiar sources of data to understand users, a wealth of valuable information resides in the company's internal systems and across the internet. Let’s look at four such sources that PMMs shouldn’t overlook: 1️⃣ Sales demos Usually, sales demos help you showcase product features to potential customers and generate leads. But they are often much more than that. As a product marketer, you can learn first-hand how prospective customers react to a specific feature or what intrigues them the most about the product. You can leverage sales demos to your benefit through: → Feature interest heatmap → Use case discovery → Competitive intelligence → Implementation 2️⃣ Customer support interactions Customer support interactions offer a wealth of insights as they reflect what customers feel and think, helping you unearth needs, preferences and pain-points. You can leverage them to not just refine your messaging strategies but also to influence the product roadmap. How to use customer support interactions to improve your customer experience: → Assessing the learning curve → Feedback on new features → Implementation 3️⃣ Reviews on independent websites Besides letting you know what they think about your product through their interactions with customer support, users also turn to review websites on the internet to let others know exactly how they feel about your product. These reviews can be very informative. The other important thing to do here is to also analyze reviews users might have left for your competing products. How can you use reviews on independent websites to help your product marketing efforts? → Competitive analysis → Identifying gaps and benchmarking → Implementation 4️⃣ Online forum discussions Online forums offer a rich source of insights for PMMs. Professionals, enthusiasts, casual users and prospects can often be found engaging on forums, discussing products that cater to them. Here’s how you can use online forum discussions for your benefit as a product marketer: → Identifying unmet needs → Discovering usage scenarios → Implementation ___ PMMs can take advantage of a number of avenues to be better informed about their products, users and competitors. Utilizing the above-mentioned ways will help you unlock new insights and drive real competitive advantage. ___ The full article with more information on all of the above I’ll leave in the comments.

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How close is AI to replacing product managers? Closer than I expected. In collaboration with Mike Taylor(a professional prompt engineer and co-author of the O'Reilly book "Prompt Engineering for Generative AI"), we've begun to develop a benchmark to track how good AI is at the most common and hardest PM tasks. In our first attempt, AI beat humans at 2/3 tasks, including developing a product strategy 😮 Check out our approach, and the surprising results https://lnkd.in/gCBYVqt9

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"Inspired" by Marty Cagan is one of the best digital product books I've ever read. In addition to the cool success stories he shares - many of them from companies/products you know and love - he emphasizes the importance of the product team, what "A" players look like in different key roles, and how they need to work together. He doesn't sugarcoat the process. Product development is hard work. But understanding how the best product teams in the world do it is a great starting place for you and your team. What are some of your favorite digital product/product development books?

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One of my clients just landed a huge promotion from Product Manager to Director of Product by using followership. What was the secret sauce? 1️⃣ Create a brag board to log impactful tasks. Those impactful tasks focused on objectives and key metrics as defined by senior management. 2️⃣ She quantified her contributions as often as possible. Any time there was a clear measure she kept track of how her work impacted it. 3️⃣ She updated leadership about completed assignments and successes CONSTANTLY. She did not just wait for a specific meeting. By sharing and keeping leadership in the loop about achievements she created proximity bias. 4️⃣ She advocated and supported ideas that aligned with her leader's mission. She used the "yes AND" system to augment ideas that worked towards management's objectives. 5️⃣ She let her leaders know how other people were helping her. She shared with leadership how she was helping others and also gave positive input into the unseen work others were doing that kept not only her team but other teams working smoothly. Remember, it's all about working smarter, not harder! I know everyone says engage leadership and show how good a leader you are - and there is something to engaging emergent leadership. But this and other experiences suggest that engaging strategic, courageous followership is no less a part of this process. Ready to level up your career game? #BeCourageous and reach out for an intro call. P. S. - Don't want to DM me, there's a link to my website in the first link. Just fill out the form and we'll set up a meeting.

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🚀 Just read an insightful article by Bethany Clark on B2B vs. B2C product management. Bethany highlights how R&D principles like starting with the problem, thinking big, starting small, and delivering outcomes apply differently in B2B and B2C contexts. 🔍 Start with the Problem: In B2B, the complexity of solving for both customers and their end-users demands a deep dive into problem statements. 💡 Think Big, Start Small, Learn Fast: B2B relies more on qualitative data and direct customer interactions, unlike B2C’s quantitative data and A/B testing. 🚀 Ship Fast, Ship Early, Ship Often: B2B customers are often more open to beta features, appreciating the collaboration on product refinement. 📈 Deliver Outcomes: In B2B, metrics include qualitative feedback like product satisfaction, alongside quantitative success. From my own experience leading the product team at ServiceChannel, I've found B2B product management to be unique in several ways: 1. Customer Relationships: In B2B, relationships are key. You’re not just a vendor but a partner in solving critical business problems. This dynamic fosters deeper engagements and long-term partnerships. 2. Complex Problem Solving: The problems we tackle in B2B are often multifaceted, requiring us to think strategically and consider a wide array of use cases and edge cases. This complexity is both a challenge and an opportunity to innovate. 3. Stakeholder Management: B2B product management involves balancing the needs and expectations of various stakeholders, from executives to end-users. This requires strong communication skills and the ability to align diverse interests towards a common goal. 4. Customization and Flexibility: Unlike B2C, where products are often designed for mass adoption, B2B solutions need to be customizable to fit specific business processes and requirements. This necessitates a flexible approach in both development and implementation. Bethany's article is a great reminder that while the core principles of product management remain the same, the context in which we apply them can vary significantly. Whether in B2B or B2C, it’s all about solving problems and delivering value, but the journey to get there is uniquely tailored to the audience we serve. Would love to hear thoughts from others in the field! How do you see the differences between B2B and B2C product management? #ProductManagement #B2B #B2C #CustomerEngagement #Innovation #Leadership #ProblemSolving

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Having examined the careers of 1,000+ product managers, I find five "hidden" roadblocks that surprised these talented folks: 1. Being Stuck in Non-Product Land: Many find themselves in environments prioritizing outputs over outcomes, stifling essential skills development like customer insight and strategic vision. 2. Getting Known Only for Execution: Excelling in execution can, unfortunately, pigeonhole you into more of the same, preventing you from taking on more strategic roles that drive significant impact. 3. The Comparison Trap: Comparing your career to others can be detrimental. Each journey is unique, and focusing on your own path and progress is vital. 4. The Upper Limit Problem: This psychological barrier where you subconsciously limit your success can significantly hinder you. Recognizing and pushing beyond your internal limits is key to achieving greater career heights. 5. Extreme Manager Dependence: Relying too much on your manager for career progression can leave you passive in your own career development. Taking ownership and advocating for yourself is essential. Remember, your career is your story to write. Inspire your teams and stakeholders by transforming your environment and narrative. If you're stuck in a less product-led role, find ways to steer towards a more outcome-focused approach. Share your vision, and slowly shift the culture around you. If you would like to see an entire video that discusses these findings in depth, please comment "video," and I will send you the link.

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Redefining MVP: It's Not What You Think Many say MVP is "the first usable product version with a minimal set of features." Sorry, but that’s not accurate. Misunderstanding MVP can lead to failure when assessing new product ideas. So, what is an MVP? MVP stands for “Minimum Viable Product,” but the term "Product" often causes confusion. The real goal of an MVP is to validate key assumptions about a product idea and gain maximum learning with minimal effort. It's about learning fast, minimizing risk, and experimenting—not creating a product for your customers. How expensive can an MVP be? Building actual products, like writing software, is one of the most expensive ways to test hypotheses. If assumptions are wrong, much of the work done can be wasteful. Instead, the first MVP should take just hours or days to build—much cheaper and faster. In the "Lean Product Playbook," Dan Olsen introduced "MVP prototype" to avoid semantic debates and emphasize quick, cost-effective learning. Similarly, Alberto Savoia’s "pretotype" from "The Right It" is another valuable concept. A prime example is the Dropbox Video Explainer MVP. At that time, Dropbox didn’t have a product to sell. They created a simple video to show early adopters how the solution would work. This video took their beta waiting list from 5,000 to 75,000 people overnight. Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/e8wx--gH

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Did you know that of 30,000 products launched every year, 95% of the products fail? Validating your idea is required to ensure you have a successful product. How do you validate your product. Here are some ideas 💡 User Interviews or Surveys 💡 Minimum Viable Product (MVP) an opportunity to learn 💡 Wizard of OZ 💡 Build a Prototype 💡 A/B Testing 💡 Quantitative Research and many many more... If you rush in and launch a product without validation you stand a high chance going too far and then realizing no one wants it. Join us in our next Scrum Alliance A-CSPO (Advanced Scrum Product Owner) on July 22 - 25 2024 to learn how to discover, plan and launch your product successfully. Schedule does not work? We have one planned every month. Link in the comments below.

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My latest post on Medium -- an overview of how to build a great delivery or "product success" function, which I think is one of the most important (and consistently under-valued) teams at a high-growth tech business. https://lnkd.in/ekUwpZ-d

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A (significantly) more condensed rant about the use of internal metrics (adoption, patter reuse, coverage, etc.) Everyone talking about measuring usage of a design system by their team is only addressing product value of the system (which is important). However, the more interesting metrics are those that affect users. A design system is an incredible repository of design choices. We need to start thinking about how choices in our design system change the usage metrics of the products built with them.

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